Simple but Effective

One of the most amazing stories at Catalyst was told by Franklin Graham. Franklin, who is the son of Billy Graham, started Samaritan’s Purse a number of years ago and is having a great impact on the world (don’t miss that).

If you know the story, Franklin was a bit of a rebel as a kid and didn’t want to get into Ministry or be a Christian. He reached a point where his Dad, Billy, told him that he was concerned about where he was headed if he continued on his current path. This got his attention.

Franklin got into Ministry unintentionally as two doctors wanted him to start a Ministry to provide medical care to people in parts of the world where it wasn’t available. He did this and after 6 months he went into full time Ministry.

Billy then asked him to take over his Ministry. Franklin found there was a significant amount of money available and asked his Dad what to do with it. Billy told Franklin to use it for what he thought needed to be done.

Franklin decided to put Billy Graham on TV all over the world. He changed the way of doing things and rather than having the big stadium meetings that Billy had he used the television to reach people in their homes. At Billy Graham Crusades they trained counselors to meet with people who came forward in the stadium to accept the invitation to know Christ.

One of the events Franklin had was in India where he trained 800,000 counselors in 18 major cities who would each invite ten people to their home for dinner and to watch Billy. If you are counting that is exposure to 8 Million people in one night. Can you say Amen?

At Catalyst Franklin stated that he wouldn’t tell us how many people accepted Christ but it was significant. Previously we had been wowed by pastors who grew their churches from a few people to 5 or 10,000 in a few years.

The story that Franklin told is not very glamorous and is very simple. He and Billy Graham by using the Gospel message of salvation may have reached 8Million or more people in one night. They didn’t use Power Point, secular music, smoke machines or any of the other stuff that culturally relevant Christians do.

We are definitely thinking too small because we are only thinking about what we can do and because we are finite beings we have limitations. God tells us and shows us in the Bible what He can do. We need to keep ourselves right with God, trust God completely, step out on faith and do everything for His honor and glory.

I encourage you to pray for God to use you in a mighty way. Then be willing to accept whatever He sends your way.